EXPERIMENTS WITTT DRIED EGG PRODUCTS. 31 



centimeter. B. coli were absent in the strictly fresh and commer- 

 cially fresh samples, but were found in 1 cc quantities of the cKecks 

 and cracks. 



Spot eggs, comprising the various grades from "light spots' 7 to 

 "rots," showed bacterial counts ranging from a few million to a bil- 

 lion organisms, with a large proportion of B. coli. 



In Table 15 it will be observed that 64, or 20.5 per cent, of the 312 

 samples of commercial frozen eggs, bought on the market as food, 

 contained 1,000,000 or less organisms per cubic centimeter, while 

 54 samples, or 17.3 per cent, contained 100,000,000 or more per cubic 

 centimeter. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH DRIED EGG PRODUCTS. 

 CONDITIONS OF THE EXPERIMENT. 



Experiments on the various grades of dried eggs were conducted 

 in about the same way as with the frozen material. (See p. 24.) About 

 1 quart of each grade was placed in a sterile screw-cap jar and held at 

 34 F., samples being removed at different intervals for analysis. 

 Tables 16 and 17 give the results obtained in the laboratory experi- 

 ments with the strictly fresh and with commercial eggs, while the 

 remaining tables deal with commercially prepared products of several 

 kinds. 



In the case of the laboratory experiment on fresh desiccated eggs 

 (see Table 16) 4 dozen strictly fresh eggs of known history were 

 broken and dried under laboratory conditions, observing only the 

 ordinary precautions such as should prevail in a well-equipped egg- 

 breaking establishment. These eggs were broken into a large con- 

 tainer and divided into 4 equal parts. Each portion was placed in a 

 sterile covered jar. No. 1 was dried at once. Nos. 2, 3, and 4 were 

 stored at about 34 F., and on each of the three successive days one 

 jar was removed for examination and drying. In each case the 

 eggs were examined before and after drying. The dried eggs were 

 kept at about 34 F. during the entire experiment. 



Other additional lots similarly prepared were examined in a similar 

 manner, except that they were held at 34 F. for three successive days 

 in a single container. One of these lots was composed of strictly 

 fresh eggs, while the other was made up of "cracks" and "dirties" 

 taken from near-by current receipts in March. The results obtained 

 from these last two experiments were practically the same as noted 

 in Table 15. B. coli were not present in any instance in 1 cc quantities. 



